Get out of the cesspool, Bill
Eric pointed out in commenting on Hard to think of anything more vile that ‘desecrating the Host’ was an old accusation against ‘the Jews.’ Sure enough.
Throughout history, a number of groups have been accused of desecrating hosts; because of the religious importance of the consecrated wafer, the accusation is one of metaphysical evil and hostility towards God. Accusations against Jews were a common pretext for massacres and expulsions throughout the Middle Ages in Europe. Similar accusations were made in witchcraft trials; the witch-hunter’s guide Malleus Maleficarum mentions the desecration of hosts by witches a number of times.
Well that’s good to know. Bill Donohue is rooting around in some very foul old garbage. Tell all your friends.
On a tangent (sorry), I found it interesting that the “desecration” in this case appears to be the student’s non-consumption of the wafer…
…whereas it was common practice in “Ye Olden Times” (historians’ technical term) for folk to take the ‘consecrated’ wafer home with them, to protect against illness, ward off the evil spirits (highly prevalent in Ye Olden Times, apparently), that sort of thing.
I wonder when the Catholic church formalised its current doctrine on snacking in church?
And does the priest wash his hands (or use a disinfectant alcohol scrub) between parishioners? Because if not, shoving his fingers into all those germ-ridden mouths…
:-)
First, let me set your mind at rest, Andy. There is a fairly hygienic way of doing this, so not to worry.
However, the story is darker than I thought. I just started reading Norman Cohn’s book on the Pursuit of the Millennium. Accord to Cohn — and I got out of bed to tell you this — so listen! First time. It’s a cracker jack of a book! But I only now came upon it. Providence, no doubt.
“And the other stock accusaton brought against the Jews in medieval Europe – of flogging, stabbing and pulverising the host – has a similar significance [to the belief in murdered Christian children]. For if from the point of view of a Jew an atrocity committed on the host would be meaningless, from the point of view of the medieval Christian it would be a repetition of the torturning and killing of Christ. Here too, then, the wicked (Jewish) father is imagined as assaulting the good son; and the interpretation is born out by the many stories of how, in the middle of the tortured wafer, Christ appeared as a child, dripping blood and streaming.” (72-73) Highly charged stuff, eh?
Very. And how heroic to get out of bed to tell us!
I have that book; clearly I have to read it. It keeps coming up.
Andy, it certainly sounds plausible that the immediate consumption of the Host would be intended to prevent its misuse, given the mindset back in Medieval times.
Yes, John, and the first misuse would be to touch unconsecrated hands!
I like Mo’s remark: “I guess at least you know what’s happening with the usual DIGESTION and EXCRETION routine.” I mean, since we’re talking about desecration, after all.
To be flip: If Jesus is God the Omnipotent, Omniscient & Omnipresent:
Couldn’t he just:
1. Leap out of the cracker (since he can’t be its prisoner)?
2. Have known ahead of time what the student would be up to and steered clear of the particular racker?
3. Have no need of the cracker anyway being everywhere? How much more “especially THERE” can he be? Is it like being at a party but hitting only on one individual? But the problem here is he’s hitting on everybody taking communion so it’s becoming rather “circular”…
Eww, according to the report, the student returned the wafer a week later- returning the ‘host’, imagine the utter ridiculousness of demanding that! So what is done to the holy biscuity bit of Jesus then? How is the poor dear disposed of, finally?
Brian,
I’m probably on dodgy theological ground here, never having read Saint Scrofulus of Padua, but I believe that it is the case that only the catholic clergy – of all the major religions – retain the power to command God.
The authority of the priesthood includes forgiving sins and condemning to hell, and if they conjure their god he must appear in wine or wafer.
They have the keys, you see. I’m not aware of any other major religion whose hierophants can do magic.
Oh I think that I once took communion when I was a teenager. Just queued up and did what everyone else did. What happens to the Jesus an infidel consumes?
I am beginning to feel very sorry for the magical jesus…
“How is the poor dear disposed of, finally?”
They have a special drain for that. That sounds like a joke but isn’t. Whole unused leftover crackers go in the Monstrance and crumbs go in the special drain which empties into the special pit which equals special burial. It’s all taken care of.
Googled to find answer to deeply intriguing question of jesus in non-consecrated innards and found this :
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/sally_quinn/2008/06/tim_russert/all_comments.html
Washington post journalist who took communion at Tim Russert’s funeral is on “shitlist of hundreds of millions of people” – such nice people, these believers! All the accumulated bits of god in them lead to the usual outpouring of wisdom, graciousness and humanity…..
Thanks Ophelia, I really didn’t know that. Wow, catholic mumbo-jumbo totally beats hindu mumbojumbo (bathing,dressing up and feeding dieties and even taking them on the occasional walk out of the temple, usually to the neighbouring temple for them to meet their fellow divinities). Where the hindus are sort of playing with dolls which is quite fun afterall, the catholics are in another league altogether.
Yes, it’s impressive, isn’t it? But if we say so, we may get a Catholic League fatwa.
Mirax,
hey, don’t forget the Catholics like to play with their dolls outside, too, in certain countries. In fact, if I remember correctly, one of our most ‘critically-acclaimed’ (i.e. only rarely lets a melody escape into his music) classical composers, (and professional Catholic) James MacMillan was calling for the re-introduction of this toytown nonsense into Scotland not so long ago…
Here’s a link to one that happens in Delaware! (St. Anthony of Padua Feast Day)
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/legacies/DE/200002823.html
Eric – in our modern MRSA & C.Difficile world, “fairly hygienic” ain’t good enough! :-))
Also, I’ve been told that you can buy these communion wafers in all sorts of varieties (wholemeal, etc) in grocery stores.. just one small question:
Are they kosher?
:-)
I stand corrected. The eucharist has been actually referred to in the past as the “prisoner of the tabernacle”.
Nevermind the contradictions involved, I’m sure it’s a “Mystery”.
Alexandrina Maria da Costa from Portugal said:
“Jesus, You are a prisoner in the tabernacle as I am here on my bed, so that
we can keep company”
She was nourished only by The Eucharist for over 13 years.
Sheer madness indeed.
I read that the first recorded accusation – against host desecration – was made in 1243 at Berlitz, near Berlin.
As a consequence all the Jews of Berlitz were burned on the spot, which was subsequently called Judenberg.